LOS ANGELES — Colin Farrell is in a happy place but you would never know it by looking at him. Relaxing in a Beverly Hills Hotel suite, Farrell’s decked out in black and sporting a street-tough haircut replete with a knotted ponytail and shaved sides.

The 36-year-old hasn’t gone punk but he is finishing up a role in the crime fantasy, Winter’s Tale, which features Farrell as a thug.

“Yeah, I play a petty criminal who falls for the image of a young woman in the apartment he’s robbing,” he says in his rapid-fire Irish lilt.

Coincidence or not, his look is appropriate for the promotional task at hand.

Farrell is taking a break from filming Winter’s Tale to talk about the revenge flick, Dead Man Down, which opens in theatres March 8.

In the movie, the actor plays Victor, who is a gun-for-hire mobster with a hidden agenda while working for a New York crime lord.

When Victor becomes involved with Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), his facially scarred neighbour, he becomes distracted from his payback mission. That happens when Beatrice demands Victor kill the drunk driver who messed up her face after a car accident.

If he refuses the contract, Beatrice says that she’ll go to the police after witnessing Victor kill a man in his apartment.

Co-starring is Terrence Howard who plays the slick crime boss. Dominic Cooper portrays Victor’s buddy in the gang. Revered French actress Isabelle Hubbert is Beatrice’s mom while veterans F. Murray Abraham and Armand Assante show up in cameos.

Indeed, the film features an impressive cast of accomplished actors but Farrell has heard that before, so he’s hopeful, but still a little skeptical, of Dead Man Down’s future in multiplexes.

“I’ve worked with great actors before and the films haven’t worked,” says the actor who may be referring to Oliver Stone’s box office and critical bomb Alexander.

What he does celebrate about Dead Man Down is the opportunity to emote opposite Rapace who established herself with her intense performance as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish crime series starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

“She really cares about what she does,” says Farrell. “You can tell that she stays up at nights thinking about what she’s going to do the next day because she has that kind of integrity.”

Their extra effort helped them pull off the difficult assignment of making their dysfunctional characters seem accessible in such a gritty film

“Each one evokes the sense of vulnerability in the other that had been suppressed,” says Farrell. “They are fractured and very lonely and live with great rage and great pain, but they try to find their way out of it through each other.”

He was equally impressed with director Niels Arden Oplev stylish noir atmosphere in Dead Man Down which recalled Oplev’s efforts with Rapace on the Dragon Tattoo films.

But the director insists that the key to movie was the connection between Rapace’s Beatrice and Farrell’s Victor, “because this is really a double revenge story about two people who become entangled.”

“That was the kind of coolest element,” Farrell says of the slow-build relationship. “They live in apartments across from each other, and there was something that bordered on the Hitchcockian about the contrivance of how they communicate from balcony to balcony.”

So does Farrell have a vengeful streak in him?

“I have no idea,” he says. “I don’t think I have an iota of understanding how I would handle Victor’s situation if I was in his place, but that’s the difference between being in the film and watching the film.”

In the meantime, he continues to mix genres from the horror of Fright Night to the farce of Horrible Bosses to his brief appearance in 2009’s country music flick, Crazy Heart, which won Jeff Bridges a best actor Oscar.

Last year, he was one of the headliners in the sci-fi remake Total Recall and part of the ensemble in the dark comedy, Seven Psychopaths.

This year, he’s showcased in parts that are just as varied. Besides the grim Dead Man Down and the brooding fantasy, Winter’s Tale, which will be in theatres later in 2013, he has some lighter fare for consideration.

He co-stars with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks, the film about the behind-the-scenes making of Mary Poppins, which is set for a high-profile release at Christmas.

Farrell also does the voice of Ronin in the animated motion picture for kids called Epic, which will be out by May.

“I really do think that the lighter stuff appeals to me more,” Farrell says. “I wouldn’t even mind doing a romantic comedy, but a good one that is smart and witty, and not insulting to the idea of romance.”

I am the Postmedia News movie writer and canada.com columnist. I prepare features and profiles stars of major motion pictures, including Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts... read more. Previously, I was a movie writer for Postmedia's National Post. I was at the George Lucas farm near San Francisco to report on the last Star Wars picture, Revenge of the Sith. I was in New York for the first preview of Peter Jackson's King Kong remake. And I have been up close and personal with high profile A-listers such as Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston and many others. Before that, I was a sleep-deprived pop music writer and critic, a film writer and reviewer, and entertainment editor at the Toronto Sun. I also worked at CBC as a writer and producer, and was one of five writers selected to produce the script for the CBC's Canada For Asia live tsunami benefit broadcast in 2005.View author's profile